Real Money

BEIJING, Nov. 28, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 21Vianet Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:VNET) ("21Vianet" or the "Company"), a leading carrier-neutral internet data center services provider in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter of 2016. The Company will hold a conference call at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on November 28, 2016. Dial-in details are provided at the end of the release.

Third Quarter 2016 Financial Highlights

Net revenues increased to RMB968.0 million (US$145.2 million) from RMB924.1 million in the comparative period in 2015

Mr. Steve Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, stated, "We are very pleased to report continued growth in our core businesses during the third quarter of 2016. Not only did we add over 2,300 new cabinets in our self-built data centers, including our latest one in Beijing, but we also solidly increased our data center utilization rate to 77.9% despite the new additions. Additionally, our cloud business continues to perform well and is gaining further momentum driven by our existing Microsoft cloud business. Meanwhile, we are thrilled to announce the General Availability of IBM Bluemix Services in China in late October. This partnership continues to deepen as our respective teams further cooperate and target a wider range of cooperation opportunities for emerging cloud businesses going forward. More recently, we signed a strategic agreement with Warburg Pincus to establish a joint venture to create a dedicated vehicle for our digital real estate business. With strong demand for data center space driven by the high growth in internet traffic, we are aiming to build out 80,000 to 100,000 cabinets over the next five to seven years. While the company stays focused on its core retail colocation and cloud services, the JV will help strengthen our IDC competitive advantages through broader product offerings and specialized business solutions. By separating the capital intensive data center infrastructure layer from the Company's asset light business, we are confident that we will lessen our dependence on Capex, improve our free cash flow, capital structure and shareholders' value."